I'll probably never move back to Ohio, but after all these years away I do miss the Midwestern sensibility so much that I thought I'd catch up with some old friends from my Ohio days and start a podcast.

There is no doubt that the opportunity to re-elect America's first black president contributed to record black turnout last year. But, no matter who is on the ballot in 2014 and 2016, we must continue to exercise our voice. We must continue to exercise our vote.

If you are on the fence about who to vote for in this election, I would ask you to think long and hard about the people who will suffer and die down the road, because we let healthcare reform die in the Election of 2012.

A couple months ago I blogged about my brother-in-law, a swing voter. Given the tightness of the election this year, and given the fact that he is the only genuine swing voter that I know, this is a subject I have not been able to put down.

No one's being forced to watch CNN's campaign swing-o-meter. But it can't be long before real-time tabulation of the sentiments of various audience segments becomes an expected and common element of all infotainment.

Call me dumb and dumber but I intend to stay right here in the middle. Believe me, it's the hardest spot to be in, especially during a presidential election. Worse, there is no candidate to vote for in the middle.

Sadly but predictably, the very same data-mining techniques now being employed by large corporations to pry into your privacy have emerged as powerful weapons on both sides of the battle for the American presidency.

Who dares, at this point in his/her wobbly existence, have no concrete clue as to what's going on, who to vote for, or why they should bother to learn to understand how to care about any of it in the first place?

What is the antidote to time silencing the voices of nearly 2.7 million voters? Americans should not only vote on November 6, they should also take practical action as friends, family members, and co-workers leading up to and on Election Day to give busy people in their lives time to vote.

As the parties have polarized they have grown the divide between them and subtracted a large number of registered voters from their rolls. This polarization has increased the ranks of reported independents substantially.

Voters ultimately decide more on who they trust and respect than on their stand on a specific issue. Issues, and how a candidate handles the issues, becomes a proxy for voters' judgments about their character.